So I got sent to the principal's office today...

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Wait, what are you being disciplined for? Let me go re-read your lead-off post. I missed some major points.

(I'll listen to the other song you posted in a moment. I'm eager, it's just that I'm fired up now.)

Posting the link in the first place, and more importantly generating "concern" amidst the student body.

You might like it, but I find that DT is hit or miss with most people.

Okay, 2nd read-through. I think I'm more clear here. That was just sloppy, lazy reading on my part.


I wouldn't have deleted the post. You're there for them to teach you to THINK and you are. Just not the thoughts they want to hear. And you're absolutely correct in that this is THEIR problem, not yours.

Isn't The Constitution part of what they teach? They taught it, and are now ignoring that which they taught you was important to meet their own agenda.

Unless you're in a school with some behavioral contract in place, this is total B.S.


You asked for advice so here it is: don't antagonize people (it sounds like you weren't), and ask your mom to please go to bat for you and your Rights on this one. This is a freedom of expression issue. You didn't even have to remove the post that _they_ found offensive (that's a key premise here, THEY found it offensive), but to make their job easier--that was a stand-up move, by the way, that's maturity showing through--you deleted it anyway. Reiterate that, you didn't have to delete it, but you did to make their job easier. You can just as easily re-complicate things. With some tasty ACLU-icing on top, if they'd like.


If they don't back off, re-post it & contact your local ACLU.

I'm biased, right, so bear that in mind.


In closing, just remember how close you are to getting out of there. Things do change after high school. It got better for me, anyway, so hang in there. You'll be able to find a job where they accept you for who & what you are, it just won't be the head accountant and Price, Windham and Honkington. Right? People tend to be more accepting of unusual. Well, there's both less and more judgement, but at least the negative judging is done behind our backs. Do whatever you can tolerably do to make it to the end and get that piece of paper that says you're acceptable at standardized tests.

Edit:
I listened to about a minute of the 2nd song. I'm sorry, brother, I can't. I like the lyrics quite a bit, but the melody & pacing isn't really my thing.

Thank you for your advice in accordance with your attentive understanding of the situation. I really appreciate that.

And as for the Dream Theater song, don't worry, not everyone's gonna like everything.

Not everybody is gonna like everything. That's the beauty of it. It helps the underdog. Even Lil Wayne needs fans.

No, there's 'Killing Machine', which was the title track on the UK pressing of an album that was retitled "Hell Bent for Leather" in the US. That one's about a contract hit man. 'The Ripper' is on their second album 'Sad Wings of Destiny,' which is one of the all-time metal classics, before they signed with the Columbia label and started gradually selling out. Sad Wings and their first album Rocka-Rolla are a whole different JP than they became later. Much edgier and more raw.

The first two or three Priest albums on Columbia weren't too bad: 'Sin After Sin,' Stained Class,' and 'Hell Bent,' you could tell the label was pushing them in a more commercial direction, because they were forced to do cover versions of other people's songs on each one, but the cover choices they made were hilarious - Joan Baez' 'Diamonds and Rust,' which was a love song she wrote to Bob Dylan; Spooky Tooth's 'Better by You, Better Than Me,' which was a slow, plodder originally and Fleetwood Mac's 'Green Manalishi' - really bizarre covers for a metal band, but they did a great job of making each song their own, very different than the originals. Nazareth had done the same sort of joke over on A&M, when they covered Joni Mitchell's 'This Flight Tonight' and then had an unexpected radio hit with the Everly Brothers' 'Love Hurts.' Bet they didn't see that coming.

Sadly, from that point on, Priest were pretty much a radio hit machine for several years and I stopped following them. By the time I noticed them again in the 90s, they were competing with Iron Maiden and Metallica for the Most Popular Speed Metal Band title, until Metallica dropped out to become the new radio hit machine.